Memphis Review

So it's been a while since my last post (aside from the scotch review).  This is partly because it's mid winter and there hasn't been a whole lot of time to cook much, but there was a pretty good trip to Memphis back on December 7th and 8th.  Here it goes:

This was a guys trip, and a good one at that.  Derek Yancey turned 31 on 12/7, but we all said we somehow figured out how to have a bachelor party without someone getting married.  3 of us arrived by plane at 9am on Friday and were picked up at the airport.  By noon we were at our first food joint: Gus's.  Long story short, this was the best Fried chicken i've ever eaten and it kicked off our 6 hour pub crawl through downtown Memphis.

Dinner Friday night was at Charles Vergos' Rendezvous.  Their claim to fame is their ribs and 'world famous BBQ.'  They had two brick open pits and used Royal Oak Charcoal Briquetts to cook on.  There is no wood or smoke involved, and they cook their ribs at 350-400.  The end result is a rack that is good, but does not have a smoke ring or pull off the bone.  I spoke to the pit master for a couple minutes, and he said they cater to the masses and most people don't know that pink indicates smoke and results in them sending ribs back.  This was not my kind of rib just in my opinion, but they are doing something right.

The first thing we did on Saturday was wake up and head to Double J's BBQ.  Long story short, I had some of the best pulled pork i've ever eaten at this place.  We had to walk past the pit in the back just to get into the place, and you could tell these guys knew what they were doing.  Nothing fancy, just an offset smoker with hickory logs.  This pork had a great bark, perfect pink smoke ring, and you could taste the hickory along with the pork.  This was the best meal of the weekend in my opinion!

Next stop, Tunica!  12 dudes packed in a limo for 45 minutes and then gambling for 3 hours.  Enough said!  Once we got back to Memphis we went to a place called Local for dinner.  I had an appetizer that consisted of fries topped with blue cheese, bacon, and cheddar and then my meal was lobster tacos which were amazing.  After dinner we went to the Hawks Grizzlies game in the FedEx Forum.  Hawks won and then off to watch some great music on Beale Street.  One memory is my buddy Cory and I finding some commercial pits in the back of one of the bars.  It was pretty cool checking them out until we both got busted back there and almost kicked out!

That about sums up the weekend for us other than breakfast at Waffle House the next day with Ponch.  Memphis is a cool town with some great food and music.  I'll definitely be back!